Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you'll enjoy reading about my quilts and travels. I make lots of quilts, many as gifts, some for charity, and a few on commission. I love to travel and I own a car, but I am afraid to drive in heavy traffic. So I often use public transportation to visit big cities. I don't just go on trips--I have adventures!

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Brenda loves lighthouses. Apparently the lighthouses in the print are real ones, as Brenda was able to identify several. Co-worker Holly T., who carpooled with Brenda for years, helped me by choosing between two lighthouse prints, and by deciding between several color combos.

Electric Quilt Sketch

Lighthouse fabric

I think I picked this up at a quilt show, in anticipation of making a quilt for Brenda.

Fabrics for the quilt

White on white fabric is from stash.

Needed one large square of theme fabric for the center, and four smaller squares for the corners. After thinking about it a lot, decided to cut the large square from one edge of the fabric, leaving a large piece of fabric to fussy cut the smaller squares.

Using a pre-made template (tracing paper) to determine the center of the large square.

Turns out the template was a little small, by 1/4" in both directions. I usually mark the corners of the template, then cut. But this time I relied on the markings of the cutting mat.

Center square cut

I chose one large Storm at Sea block to be able to show off the lighthouses well, and not cut them up too much.

I wanted to have at least one of each lighthouse, whole. In this photo you can see different lighthouses marked with flower pins, with plenty of space between each for cutting.

Using a small template (gridded plastic) to define a square

The five fussy cut squares. Every variety of lighthouse is shown intact.

Medium blue triangles added to the large square.

Light blue triangles added

White-on-white print added to a small square

Medium blue triangles added

Marked large rectangles with diamond shape (sewing line)

Trying out an oversized triangle to see if it will fit

Yep, it will work!

Triangle sewn

Triangle pressed

View from the back

Not shown - white trimmed even with blue edge

As seen from the back, after most of blue has been trimmed away.

View from the front

Second white triangle attached

Red triangles attached to complete the unit

View from the back

Squares (9 of them) laid out on the design wall

Squares sewn together

Border added to finish the quilt top

Once again, the finished quilt

Brenda was very happy with her quilt. Enjoy retirement and your quilt, Brenda!

Nine is a significant number in softball and baseball. Chose nine-patch blocks in 9" finished size.

A peek at the back of the quilt

Wood grain reminds me of a wooden bat.

I have had the wood grain fabric in my stash for many years, originally used in a carpenter themed quilt for my grown son Robbie (see below).

Carpenter Wheel

Bad photo, beautiful quilt

I had my eye on this softball themed fabric for a long time. While spying out Vicki's office, I noticed a lot of pink decorations. I figured this fabric would do nicely.

Electric Quilt Sketch

Fabrics for the quilt

Wood grain, white-on-white and black print are from stash.

Nine patch block - 9" finished size

Nine patch blocks and alternating squares of the softball print

To save time, I simplified the design quite a bit. Here, I'm trying to figure out how to create a diamond design with triangles of black or dark gray. In the end, I decided to leave out the diamond.

Squares sewn together

Wide border added to complete the quilt top

Once again, the finished quilt

Vicki was surprised to get a quilt. Actually, her quilt has been on my to-make list for a long time. As far back as 15 years ago, our group of co-workers would draw names to decide who would take care of each birthday. I had already established a tradition of giving a quilt as a birthday gift, so people would be disappointed when someone besides me would draw their name. The person who stands out in my memory is Vicki. I'm glad I finally made her a quilt.